Bloody Perks
by Cassie's Neighbor
Summary: What happens if Percy accidentally saw Annabeth having a bloody "accident"? As usual, Percy would have to be the hero in the end and save her from total humiliation. Free tampons inside.


**A/N: Hey guys! I'm back! I hope you've had a great month, because I had a pretty hell-like one on the contrary. This is just a story to make up for my absences, and don't worry. 'Of Cuts and Pills'' update is coming soon. I do hope you'll be patient with me and I hope you'll be glad with how things would work out.**

**Special thanks to:**

**storyteller1425 - for the amazing beta. I couldn't make this story without you. And I'm sorry for the length of the new story I've been planning to post. I hope everything would turn out right.  
**

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**Percy Jackson and The Olympians**

**Title: **Bloody Perks

**Summary: **What happens if Percy accidentally saw Annabeth having a bloody 'accident'? As usual, Percy would have to be the hero in the end and save her from total humiliation.

**Pairing: **Percabeth.

**P.O.V.:** Percy Jackson

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_Sundays. Sundays. Happy, happy, Sundays._ I sang inside my head as I ran blithely, kicking a few fallen leaves as I went. I was trying to catch Annabeth on her mid-noon run along camp.

We were going to play Capture the Flag tonight, along with the Hephaestus, Hermes, and Aphrodite cabins. The opposing teams would be Ares, Apollo, and the rest. Good thing I had Annabeth and her cabin mates, and the Hephaestus and Hermes cabin on my side. Athena's battle strategy could outwit the red side to humiliation. Hermes campers could tip the scale with sheer number, force and ultra-sly moves. Hephaestus dudes would crush the enemy to bits. I could uh… splash puddle water on them so they would get wet or something. I wasn't really sure about the Aphrodite cabin, though. I guess they could assure us that we looked good while in combat. That we wouldn't be slashing and hacking with our swords while having boogers on our noses.

I didn't have a plan. I had nothing. So there I was, running around in circles, searching for the blonde strategist.

I caught a sight of a small glint of golden hair flying across the strawberry fields. I ran faster, hoping I could catch up to her, hoping that it was Annabeth and not one of her siblings.

_Trot, trot, trot,_ went my Reeboks.

_Thump, thump, thump,_ went my heart banging on my chest.

_Meow, meow, meow,_ went the little kitten I accidentally kicked while I was running.

I panted harder. I was just two feet away from her as she skidded to a stop, surrounded by strawberry bushes. And that was the time I saw it.

Let me discuss to you what it means, and what happened when I saw it, shall I? Okay. Deep breaths…

I already told you Annabeth stopped running and she was studying some bushes in the fields. That was when my eyes hovered around the back of her pants and I saw a red stain just a few centimeters above her crotch. I wasn't being a pervert, seriously. I mean, who could miss that…thing? It was huge! Well, not actually. But I'm a guy. Getting a red splat on the back of your denim pants is a big thing to me.

I covered my eyes with my hands, hoping that the red flush on my cheeks would simply imply the prickly heat. Why, oh, why did the gods have to will it that Annabeth would get her menstruation now, and why, oh, why did it have to be me, of all people, to notice it?

I was about to turn away, still covering my eyes when I heard a twig beneath my sneakers snap.

Annabeth twirled around. "Oh, hey Percy."

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. "Er – hey Annabeth."

"Why are you covering your face?" Annabeth asked quizzically. "Is there something wrong?"

"Everything's fine," I answered hastily, peeking a little between the gaps on my fingers.

She furrowed her eyebrows and tucked a wooden clipboard in her arm. "There's something definitely wrong."

I pulled away from my hands and faced her. "No, no," I blushed at the look she was giving me. "I'm great. I'm good. I'm perfectly fine…" I racked my head for other synonyms.

"So what are you doing here?" I told her before she would twirl around to face the bushes, before I would see _it_ again.

"Chiron and Mr. D asked for a report on the strawberry field harvest progress," she said, capping a pen. "This is supposed to be Demeter's job, but since they're all stuck and sick because of that hefty trick the Stoll brothers pulled up, I volunteered. Got nothing to do today, so why not?"

My reply was more of a "Yeah, that's cool." Without thinking, I blurted out, "Are you sure you haven't sat on a strawberry today?"

Annabeth eyed me like I said something worthily stupid. "No. Why?"

Blushing even harder, I cleared my throat and answered. "You've got a little… something on your pants." I jerked my head sideways, telling her to tilt sideways and get a good look of her back.

I bit my lip, waiting for the inevitable as she twisted her torso and clasped her hand on the back side of her jeans. She gave a strangled murmur and swore under her breath. When she faced me, her cheeks were blazing like the strawberries in heat.

Seeing my tortured expression, she hung her head low. The winds swished and the branches of the trees swayed harmoniously, the sun beating down on us.

_Tweet, tweet, tweet,_ went those blasted happy birds, completely unaware of how awkward the situation was below.

Part of me wanted to run away, afraid and embarrassed to face Annabeth. But the majority of my so-called brain told me it wasn't the best thing to do. I needed to be a man.

I counted to fifty seven seconds before Annabeth stammered an apology. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"It's okay," I told her. I swear she was getting redder and redder by the moment. Almost the same shade as the blood on her back…

I mentally slapped myself for thinking that.

"I need to change," she mumbled and cut past me, tugging her shirt downwards in a futile attempt to cover up the accident on her jeans.

Knowing that she'd end up ripping apart her orange shirt, I untangled the jacket wrapped around my waist – Jackets in summer. What was I thinking? – and I handed it to her. "Here," I said. "Take it."

She gave me a small smile while she tied my jacket on her waist, and I smiled back. We both blushed at that. I noted that the jacket covered the stain completely when she ran ahead.

I ran after her. "Wait! Can I come?"

She whirled and faced me. She was blushing a deep tomato color right now. "You want to come inside the girl's bathroom while I change?" she whispered angrily. "Are you crazy?"

It was my turn to blush, noticing the sudden change of her mood. Oh right. Girls get mood swings when they get menstruations.

"No. I didn't mean that," I told her hastily, half-whispering so no other campers would get a gist of our conversation. "I just wanted to be a lookout while you go change. I'll wait for you until you get out. I'm not going to accompany you inside a cubicle, Annabeth. How crazy do you think I am?"

She nodded and hesitated as she thought of something. "Can you go to my cabin and fish me a fresh pair of jeans? If my sisters are in there, they'd know where to get it. If no one's home, well… my dresser's on the right side of my bunk."

"Would you like your underwear to go with that?" I chuckled in spite of myself.

She glared at me and I took that as a yes. "You'd better not be staring at my ass or I'll kick yours, Jackson." I laughed at that.

* * *

We went our separate ways and I jogged towards cabin six. I knocked on the door, and a girl a foot shorter than me, with strawberry blond hair and misty eyes, opened it.

"Hey," I said. "Can you do me a favor?"

She nodded.

"Can you get me a pair of pants… and underwear for your head counselor? You know her bunk, right?" I tried to tell it to the kid really smoothly, like some random guy popping on your doorstep asking for girl clothes is not a big deal. But inside, I was choking in embarrassment.

She eyed at me critically and jutted out her jaw. She was being stubborn... and trying really hard not to laugh. "Why do you need Annabeth's underwear?"

"Annabeth had a little… accident. I need you to get her underwear and fresh pair of pants from her dresser, pronto. Got it?"

The girl's grey eyes were dancing with amusement. "She peed on herself?"

"No!" I exclaimed. I whispered to her ear about what happened and when I pulled away, her eyes bulged. She laughed out loud. I saw a few of the Athena kids give her odd looks.

"I bet she needs a tampon, too," she half-muttered, half-giggled.

I nodded. "Now get the damn clothes already. Annabeth's going to kill me."

Still cracking up, she fiddled with the cabinet on the far right corner. After a few seconds, she darted back towards the door post and handed me Annabeth's clothes, smiling smugly. I had to give credit to her, though. She tactfully hid the underwear and the tampon in the folds between Annabeth's jeans.

"You wouldn't tell a soul about what happened, right?" I asked her solemnly.

She nodded, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Don't worry, Mr. Percy, sir." She made a motion of zipping an imaginary zipper on her lips.

"Thanks." I ran towards the bathrooms, ignoring the weird looks I got from the other campers. Note to self: being seen running around the open field carrying a pair of pants isn't one of the best things to be caught doing. I wished to every god I knew that the tampon and the underwear wouldn't fall off; because picking up a fallen pair of panties with a really embarrassing combination of napkins in front of hundreds of campers would just be a topper to my already crappy day.

I let out a half-crazed laugh as I zoomed past the clueless campers, running to Annabeth's rescue, hoping I was not too late.

Panting, I reached the bathrooms, wondering which cubicle Annabeth was in. "Hey. Annabeth," I called to her softly.

"I'm over here!" she responded and I saw a disembodied hand waving from the fourth cubicle to my left. I handed over her clothes carefully, and she took them. Our fingers touched, and I had to admit that my face burned at the contact when I felt her hand brush through mine. She slowly retracted her hand.

"Er – thanks, Percy." I could almost feel the heat of her blush. "I uh… can you wait outside by the oak tree near the canoe lake?"

"Sure."

I did not wait for a response. I dragged my feet towards the canoe lake, which was empty of campers. I wondered why Annabeth wanted to meet me here. She probably wanted to talk to me in private about the whole thing, give me some ultimatum on why I was staring at her ass in the first place. My face burned at the memory. I wasn't checking her out or drooling at her butt or something. I just saw it. It was an accident. Crap. I needed to formulate some excuse before Annabeth would come here and pound me.

I let out a har har laugh again as I jogged. Me and my crazies.

Matching my breathing with the silent waves of the lake, I felt movement not far from me. I looked up and saw Annabeth giving me an apologetic smile, her blush not quite removed from her face. I gestured for her to sit with me and as she did so, our bare arms brushed again, shooting some kind of sparks all over my body; sparks I had not recognized until later. The chicken instinct inside of me wanted to run away and forget this ever happened, but this was a shared experience, no matter how ridiculous it was. I was overreacting. I shouldn't have made a big deal out of it.

She handed me the jacket.

"Keep it," I told her. "We won't know when it'll happen again, will we?"

She snorted and folded the jacket on her lap. Few seconds passed by...

"I'm sorry, Percy," she started.

"No. Don't be. It's a natural. For girls, at least." I looked over at her and I saw a ghost of a smile dangling on her lips.

"Oh gods," she buried her face in her hands. "This is so embarrassing!"

I laughed. "Trust me. I'm just as embarrassed as you are."

She resurfaced and pointed her finger at me accusingly. "I'm hoping you did not... spread the word to anyone about this, right?" She was smiling and I almost sighed in relief. I was saved.

I made a mock expression of surprise. "I'm not for gossip and I'm no perv too, Annabeth. How low could you possibly think of me?"

She breathed in deeply and stared at the lake again, the wind blowing the hair that dangled haphazardly on her face. I saw a hint of her owl earrings; a gift from her dad.

"Does it hurt?" I asked suddenly.

"No, not at all. For some, it hurts like Hades. They get stomach cramps and all that. But for me, no. That's why I have trouble knowing when I get… you know. The next thing I knew, my pants are all splattered in red. I don't exactly do countdowns like some other girls."

"So it comes only once a month?"

"It lasts three days. Three bloody days. For some it lasts for five days and for others, it lasts for about a week or so. But yeah, it happens every month."

I grimaced, imagining what happened to Annabeth happening to the rest of the girls all over the world. "And I thought us boys have it bad."

She rolled her gray eyes. "You guys just get circumcised once, while we have to go through monthly inconveniences for almost the rest of our lives."

I laughed at that. "I have to admit. You girls are tough."

She chuckled. "Glad you think that."

The waves started to calm down and the sun was now going to the west. Afternoon.

"Thanks for the save. I was afraid that you would be hugely disgusted with me, and you wouldn't talk to me for a long time."

I did a silent gulp and told her, "I'm not hugely disgusted at you. Well maybe a little." I could at least be honest to her. I owed her that. "But not enough not to talk to you. I was just… got caught a little off guard."

I caught a glimpse of her and was glad she wasn't offended.

"Yeah," she answered. "Me neither. I was half expecting you to run away, thinking I was so revolting. A daughter of Athena entailing lack of sense in proper hygiene. Most guys would do that," her voice suddenly grew soft. "Thanks for everything you did, Percy. I appreciate what you've done. You really are my best friend."

"No problem, Annabeth." My eyes locked with hers. "You're my best friend, too."

A blush crept on her cheeks as her eyes assessed the intensity of my gaze. She looked away abruptly.

She snickered. "Forget Mt. St. Helens. This is like the most humiliating thing that ever happened to me."

It was my turn to flush. I frowned, wondering if she was thinking of our little mishap: when she kissed me when she thought I was about to die. "Mt. St. Helens wasn't all that bad."

She made a nervous grunt. "Well, no. It wasn't entirely that bad. I have to agree." Our matching blushes made me conclude we were thinking the exact scene.

I thought about everything that happened after our quest in the Labyrinth. How everything suddenly grew complicated between us.

"I thought you were going to gut me, at first. Your next move really knocked the Hades out of me." I didn't want to say the 'k' word. Not right now.

"I was impulsive, I know. I got angry at you for throwing your life away like that. And I was angry I wasn't brave enough like you were."

"But I got out alive," I said. "I got lucky. You made me lucky. Maybe you should get angry at me more often."

She chuckled. "Don't worry. You manage to make me be like that all the time."

I joined in her laughter, awakening some dryads nearby. I saw three shimmering teenage girls – naiads – waving and giggling at us from the lake.

"I'm getting closer to sixteen every day," I told her, trying to sound anxious. "When I face Kronos, is there any chance you would give me a small kiss? Just for luck? Maybe I'll get lucky for the second time around."

She only rolled her eyes when she saw the grin breaking on my face. She kissed me on the cheek, and I dissolved like monster ashes on the spot.

She gave me a small wave before she sprinted towards the Big House.

I smiled idiotically, knowing what she meant by that kiss. I got the message.

_Good luck with that, Seaweed Brain._

Maybe my day wasn't that crappy after all. It certainly wasn't.

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**A/N: I hope it wasn't an all cheesy ending. I just got inspired and wrote the whole thing down so I hope you won't be disgusted with me. I don't mean to be demanding, but the review button is just a few inches away. Why don't you click it and maybe tell me:**

**a. Is the story good or suckish?**

**b. Did you have the same experience as stated above?if yes, how did it go?**

**c. Just drop an emoticon if you like.**

**Thanks for stopping by!  
**


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